It paints a detailed picture of economies bound together by mutual investment, which far outstrips simple trade.

Companies that span the Atlantic are an important feature of this relationship. In 2011, 61% of US imports from the EU consisted of intra-firm trade. That compares with 37.2% intra-firm imports from Pacific Rim countries and 37% from South/Central America. For some individual EU countries, the proportion is particularly high: in Ireland it is 88.5% and in Germany 68.7%.

The survey, which is published by the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union and the Transatlantic Business Council, has been prepared each year since 2004 by Daniel Hamilton and Joseph Quinlan of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

They report that US foreign direct investment outflows to Europe rose by 6% in 2013 and totalled $200 billion. Having fallen through the year, the flows rebounded towards the end of the year.

Within Europe, the US’s top overseas market has shifted from the UK to the Netherlands. Whereas the UK has traditionally been the export platform for US companies to greater Europe, more US firms are using the Netherlands, because of the euro, the single market and EU enlargement, as a route to using other European markets.

Ireland is described as the number one export platform in the world for Corporate America.

US investment in Italy, Spain and Switzerland have declined as a share of the European total.